Green Day talk up new albums

Green Day have been talking about their trio of new albums, Uno, Dos and, you guessed it, Tre. The release in triplicate is due to a spurt of creativity by the band, a middle-aged flourish of exuberance.

Talking to Rolling Stone, Billie Joe Armstrong described the sound as "power pop", pitched somewhere between early Beatles and AC/DC. The records have a looser, less studied feel than recent releases, Armstrong explained.

"The last two records were studio albums,” he said. "This one – we started rehearsing every day, constructing these songs together. It felt like we were all in a room jamming – everyone in the mix, throwing out ideas. If you listen to it, it feels grand. But it also feels like a garage band."

The song Kill The DJ, on Uno, Armstrong suggested, is reminiscent of early 80s crossover dance-rock tunes from bands like The Clash, Ton Tom Club and Ian Dury and the Blockheads.

The band were forced to cancel a free secret show in Los Angeles, where they had planned to showcase some of the new songs. The "secret" was a little too open and, a spokesperson said, "after monitoring the situation, fears were the numbers would dramatically swell and pose serious concern for safety of concert-goers once the location was made public."

"It’s a crazy idea that happens to be working really well," Armstrong said about the notion of releasing three albums at once. The release dates will be staggered, with Uno appearing on September 24, Dos on November 12 and Tre on January 14 2013.